For love we'll give it a shot
by thegirl20
Summary: Tommy and Jane have a little talk.


Tommy shook his head as his older sister walked away from her decisive chess victory. He pushed his chair back from the table and stood. He needed to speak to Jane alone.

"Hey, if I'm gonna fix this door tonight, I gotta get some stuff from the hardware store. " He quirked his head at Jane. "Can you gimme a ride, Janie?"

Jane rolled her eyes. "You can take my car. I just wanna veg out for a while."

"Go with your brother," Angela told her. "The two of you don't spend enough time together. Me and Maura will make some supper for the two of you coming back."

Tommy hid a grin. He could always rely on his mother to encourage sibling bonding time. Jane sighed.

"Fine." She said, standing up. She pointed at Maura. "But I better get dessert too."

Maura was still smiling from her discovery of Jane's chess prowess and the smile grew. "I guarantee dessert."

Tommy noticed Maura slipping her credit card into Jane's hand as she passed her, out of Angela's sight. He stepped aside and let Jane walk out in front of him.

Once they were settled in the car and on their way, Tommy cleared his throat.

"So, I gotta ask this…" He turned to watch Jane's face. "Do I got a shot or should I just give up?"

Jane kept her eyes on the road, but it was clear that she hadn't picked up on his meaning.

"A shot at what?"

Tommy took a breath. "A shot at Maura. 'Cause you pretty much just blew me out of the water back there, sis. You might as well have pissed on her leg."

He wasn't given a chance to continue because Jane swung the car violently to the right and slammed on the brakes. She turned to face him, a finger poking painfully into his chest.

"Okay little brother, let's get a few things straight." He smirked at her choice of phrase but it faded when he saw the very genuine anger on her face. "Number one, Maura Isles is not the kind of woman you 'take a shot' at. Number two, even if she were, you wouldn't stand a chance. Number three, I have no idea what you're talking about. Number four….ew. Never say that again."

"Jesus, Jane, take a midol, huh?" He rubbed his chest where her finger had dug into his skin. "I was just askin'!"

"Yeah, well….don't. There's plenty of girls out there for you to 'take a shot' at. Stay way from Maura."

She pulled back out into traffic. The car was silent for a few moments.

"Why wouldn't I stand a chance?"

Tommy knew he would never be Maura's choice as a husband. But she'd made it pretty clear that she thought he was cute. Of course, that was mostly when Jane wasn't around. When Jane was around, Maura didn't seem to notice that anyone else existed. Jane sighed.

"Because, Tommy, you just wouldn't. She's…she's from a different world. She's classy. She likes fancy restaurants and designer clothes and ridiculous modern art…thingies." Tommy was sure that Jane didn't even realise that she had started to smile as she spoke about Maura. "You wouldn't fit into her world. Just…just save yourself the heartache, Tom."

"We still talkin' about me, Janie?" His voice was quiet, gentle.

"We're talking about people like us, Tommy. People like us and people like Maura…" She glanced over at him, quickly looking away when she saw the concerned expression he was wearing. "Just leave it alone."

"You know what we talked about? When we were up all night playin' chess?" He hadn't been planning to share this, but what the hell? "You. All frickin' night, Janie. She thinks you're the shit. You should see her face when she talks about you. She's like a kid at Christmas."

She was shaking her head. "I said _leave it_. It's none of your business."

"Since when is family none of my business? Did I get that right revoked when I got thrown in the slammer?"

"Don't start this. Family is one thing, but my love life is another. Me and Maura are just fine as we are…"

She pulled into the parking lot at the hardware store. Tommy took a chance. Jane sometimes needed to be pushed into action. He was willing to do the pushing.

"Then I'm gonna ask her out."

He physically shrank back from the look she gave him.

"Get out of the car." Her voice was low and threatening. He'd heard it many times growing up and it still brought him out in goosebumps. She opened her door and he did the same, stepping out into the cool night air. He watched as she rounded the car towards him. She stood in front of him, a few inches shorter than him now, but no less intimidating than she'd been when they were kids.

"Hit me."

That wasn't what he'd expected.

"Huh?"

"Hit me. Punch me in the gut."

"No way, Jane. What the hell?"

"You wanna hurt me? Punch me. Kick me. Slap me." She shook her head. "But don't ask Maura out. It'd kill me."

He pulled her into his arms, relieved when she didn't fight it.

"You're an idiot, Jane Rizzoli," he murmured against her ear. "But for some reason, Maura thinks you walk on frickin' water. So get your head out of your ass and do something about it before somebody who's not quite as nice as me gets a hold of her, huh?"

She spoke into his shoulder. "I'm not fancy."

"No shit." She snorted and he smiled. "But she doesn't want fancy. She wants you."

She lifted her head to look at him.

"Could you imagine her coming with me to aunt Sofia's New Years party?" she asked, sniffing.

"Yeah, I could. She'd insult half the room without even trying, Nonna would love her and you'd have to handcuff Uncle Dino to keep him from pawing her." He tickled her lightly. "And she'd love every minute of it, because she'd be with you."

She shook her head. "When did you turn into a matchmaker?"

He grinned. "When I was forced to spend a whole night listening to a running commentary on your virtues. No guy should have to hear someone talk about his sister's long femurs and toned gluteus maximus. That's just wrong."

She slapped his arm. "Shut up." The parking lot was plunged into darkness and they both turned at the same time to note that all the lights in the store had just been switched off. They turned back to face each other.

"Guess I'm not fixin' the door tonight?"

-

Back at Maura's, Tommy walked in behind Jane to the smell of their mother's cooking. Angela looked up and frowned.

"Where's the stuff you were buying?"

Jane shrugged. "Store was closed. We'll do it tomorrow. Oooh, that looks good."

She wandered over to where Maura was stirring something. Tommy watched as Maura dipped her finger into the mixture and held it out to Jane, who took it into her mouth and sucked off the creamy substance, moaning deep in her throat as she did so. Maura smiled, using her thumb to swipe at some cream that had dripped onto Jane's chin.

"Hey Ma," he said quietly. "What do you say we take ours to go, huh? I'm kinda beat."

"But…"

He cleared his throat and tilted his head to where Jane and Maura were just staring at each other, smiling.

"Oh…okay. Yeah, we can do that. I'm beat myself with all my travelling." She quickly dished out the pasta she'd made and handed two bowls to Tommy for them to take into the guest house.

"Supper's ready girls," Angela called out. "Hey, Jane. Maybe you should stay here tonight…so that Maura feels safer, what with her busted door and everything."

"Hmmm?" Jane finally looked over at her mother. "Yeah. That's a good idea, Ma."

"I have them sometimes." Angela was almost out the door, with Tommy trailing behind. "Goodnight!"

"Night Janie," Tommy said. "Night Maura.."

"Goodnight Tommy." It didn't escape Tommy's notice that Maura didn't even glance in his direction.

"Night little brother," Jane called, and mouthed 'thank you'. He nodded at her as he was backing out of the door so that he could use his foot to close it after him. He sighed as he made his way back to the guest house.

Oh well, at least Frankie owed him fifty bucks.


End file.
